Clancy: Out of the ashes

Martha works for a church in the thrift shop. “She’s very active in the church,” Vinals said.

Doe he consider himself a religious man?

Gregory was having trouble keeping a straight face hearing the question. Vinals said, with a wide smile, before his friend laughed, “Well, at least I try to be.”

Down on the sidewalk was James Griffin, looking up. A chef at an assisted living facility around the corner, he had come running on Super Bowl Sunday after someone said his house was on fire. That February afternoon he stood in the street holding his wife Veronica as they watched their house burning in front of them.

They had met when Griffin, an Army vet, had been stationed in South Carolina. “I came home here to bury my father and met Veronica at his funeral,” Griffin said.

It had been a happy life at No. 1294, he said, until wiring gone wrong turned their home into the derelict at the garden party of Dekoven Street, with the ruined structure painfully out of place among the well- kept, modest houses lining the block.

He and Veronica have been staying with family in Queens since that February day. One son was staying at a friend’s in Elmont, another son with family in Delaware.

“One said he’s tired of sleeping on his friend’s couch,” Griffin said. “I told him be thankful you have a friend to take you in.”

He praised Green Earth for being careful and conscientious, coming by every day on his way to work to check on the house. But his visits are solitary.

“My wife can’t come see it,” he said. “It’s too much for her.”

After a long entanglement with red tape, the Griffins’ insurance has kicked in. Griffin said they’d never lost hope they’d reclaim their house, even after people said it could be years before a settlement.

“We’re lucky it just took since February,” he said. “We’re rebuilding today.”